When not writing, I fill my time with other activities. One favorite is tatting. This blog is about what I tat, with a few other things thrown in for fun.

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Snails and letters

Well, I've been moving at about the same pace as these pretty snails from Tatting Animals, by Inga Madsen.

Guess what, we're going to be inside letters! Motif #13.

These lovely critters were done in Lizbeth size 20, #620 as the body, and #121, #124, #131, and #135 for the shells. The two on the left have a bead, while the two on the right do not.

While I was tatting these, I also noticed a difference between the diagram pattern and the example picture in the shell. A single chain that in the diagram is six double stitches long; while in the example picture it is three double stitches, picot, then three double stitches, and the picot is used to join a ring later on. That ring also is altered slightly, depending on if you need to use it for that join.

So the two snails on the left are tatted according to the diagram, while the two on the right follow the example picture.

Done in Lizbeth size 20, #115 and #680.

This doily was for my Uncle's birthday, and is the Pinwheel doily pattern from Be-Stitched. At first I wasn't sure if he would like it, but when I gave it to him, he appeared to quite happy to receive it.

I did make the long chains of row four too loose at first, but I was able to manipulate the core thread so that I could spread the excess into nearby chains and rings. It took some extra time, but it made the final piece look so much better.

Look! I think it's trying to spell something in size 10 thread!

For my cousin's birthday, I tatted his nickname. He seemed to like it, which is what I always hope for when I give someone a piece of tatting.

The patterns came from The Tatters' Paradise, and other then accidentally tatting the second O in size 8 at first, everything went quite quickly.

Remember when I said that I was learning to knit? Well, I have a couple of knitted pieces to show once I take pictures of them.

Something pretty cool happened when I went to a craft store to get a pair of size 8 knitting needles. I was walking past an endcap in the yarn section, when something hanging underneath a clearance sign caught my eye.

Six balls of size 20 Lizbeth thread, for fifty cents each!

I was quite ecstatic with this find, and quickly collected them.

I'm not quite sure why they were on clearance, but they appear just fine and are all colors that I like (two balls of #100, one of #134, and three of #142, in case you were wondering).

About Me

I love words, and writing is a way I express that love. My favorite genre to read and write is fantasy. Before I was introduced to tatting, I had no interest in crafts. But after borrowing a shuttle and proving to my tatting teacher that a lefty could learn to tat, I fell in love with the craft.